Guardian of the Sunshine Princess presents an amazing conflict and keeps it going throughout the whole book. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything quite like it.
The conflict is between the Biblical and unBiblical views of ‘love’ and commitment. None of the characters say this, and none of them have a Biblical view… instead, each of them seems to have a conflicted view which contrasts, in their own thinking, the Biblical with the unBiblical view without ever being able to resolve either.
The Christian view of love and commitment begins with commitment and works out its love in that context. So the woman who commits to marriage is then pledging to love the man that she is committed to. The love she is pledging involves both the love that she owes everyone (patience, kindness, not envious, not boasting, etc..) and the specific actions that she owes her husband: sexual access, sexual fidelity, submission, emotional fidelity, etc. A man who dedicates himself to a job similarly owes both the love commanded for all Christians and obedience to the specific commitments that he has undertaken in that particular job.
This book shows the conflicted, failure of obedience to these precepts. A man and a woman, traveling together, both of whom have made commitments, fail to understand both the nature of the love that they owe and the commitments that they have undertaken.
The story, ignoring all of the bits that don’t concern the issue I am dealing with, is simple: a supposedly honorable man is asked to escort and guard a woman who is committed to marriage (far more serious than our modern ‘engagements’) along (what turns out to be) a difficult journey to the man she is to marry. So his commitment is to get her there, safely, ready to marry her husband. Her job is to get there, purely, ready to marry her new husband.
They both fail dramatically at their job. By the time they arrive at her husband, they have committed to each other emotionally and sexually (although with no sexual intercourse) and have gone through the ritual of marriage (with the excuse that that seemed like the only possible way of making it through enemy lines). They continually make decision after decision that binds them more fully together emotionally and sexually.
Not without conflict. That is the interesting part. This isn’t just some classical ‘girl falls for the boy on the way to awful arranged marriage’ story. Both of the characters are conflicted about their own behavior, even as they engage in it. They don’t merely devolve into the false concept of love as an emotion that permits all infidelity, but attempt to hold the false concept at the same time as elements of the truth!
Indeed even the new husband, once they finally arrive, is conflicted, at least about the proper action. He proposes executing the guardian… for treason. Not adultery, treason. Leaving the ugly idea that if the girl hadn’t been a princess then the behavior might not have been criminal. And faced with such questions as, “Can I see him again?” he does not respond that that would be the height of foolishness, the two should never see each other again even if she isn’t to be executed, he responds merely with the nonsensical, “You may see him if that is your desire” and a plea to call him by his first name.
This is the first book in the series, and I wonder how this conflict will be resolved. Will any of the characters come to a Biblical understanding of their role? Or will they continue in the halfway house of evil actions with guilt and a lack of understanding?
I am not hopeful, certainly. The ending of this, the first book, devolves into a morass of folly, of admission without the guilt of adultery and failure… of failure treated as if it was a success. So I am left wondering… will the characters realize their folly? Or is their folly what the author is trying to promote?
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Guardian of the Sunshine Princess
Betrothed Duty versus Unexpected Love
A man with a dark past meets a girl with a bright future, and their choices will change the world.
Princess Kathleen is betrothed to the powerful Prince of Tyath. The arrangement was made when she was just a child. She is duty-bound to save her people from starvation and sees marriage as her only option. That is until she meets the Sīhalt Guardian sent to protect her during her dangerous journey to the altar. The vigorous guardian steals her first kiss, but will he be able to keep her safe and steal her heart?
Jared spent his childhood in the cold north training to be a Sīhalt Guardian – the fiercest of protectors. While seeking revenge for his sister’s death, he sets off a chain of events that endangers the next person he is ordered to protect. Will one act of vengeance cost him the forbidden love of the Princess he longs for?
Heathron has managed to become the heir to an empire, but he needs to be married to assume the throne. Despite all the manipulative efforts of the beautiful, back-stabbing young ladies of the Golden City, he dreams of the illustrious young girl the met as a child. Will he still love the Princess as secrets unravel and he discovers the truth about her journey to him with the Warrior?
Cedric will stop at nothing to reclaim the ancestral lands of his people and drink from the skull of the man who killed his father. As he unites his army of ruthless barbarians, Cedric knows that capturing the Princess is his best chance at securing all his evil desires. Will the Princess survive being a pawn in his dangerous scheme filled with deceit and destruction?
